The other components are surprisingly (to me anyway) tolerable noise-wise, and I'm not a picky guy, but I find the stock HSF too noisy and have a $70 budget to try to fix it. I'd rather avoid pulling off the motherboard to install anything, seems excessive for my needs.

I'm thinking of starting this process by replacing the stock HSF with an Arctic alpine 64-- a rather low-budget way of finding out what all the numbers and reviews mean to me noise wise in my own home.

Any advice or opinions you'd care to share would be greatly appreciated.

_________________.Please put a country in your profile if you haven't already.This site is international but I'll assume you are in the US if you don't tell me otherwise.RAID levels thread http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=388987

Cool & Quiet AND Smartfan (Qfan, whatever that's called) have been "enabled" in the BIOS. HSF always seems to run at about 2000 though. Maybe I don't really ever stress this system much(?)

Forgot to mention I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS so Speedfan I believe is not an option unfortunately, and I'm beginning to suspect might be why the fan speed reads as being controlled but possibly isn't (?) Didn't think the OS choice would affect this issue, but will post over there as well, maybe it does.

Posted to the ASUS support site on this subject quite a while ago without a response.

But I can't quite make sense out of your remark. Could you elucidate please?

I was thinking lm-sensors was already installed with Ubuntu 10.04, but after a quick search I've discovered I'm wrong: so actually you need to install lm-sensors/fancontrol and configure them (you may check ubuntuforums/google for current relevant issues).

Well, I've tried dozens of times from dozens of angles to install & configure fan control via CLI in Ubuntu to no avail. I decided to count that out as a solution.

Bought-and installed--an AC Alpine 64 and RPMs and noise levels dropped to within bearable limits. (The stock HSF was only 65mm! Oy!). So much so, though, I've begun to notice just how noisy the case fan has been all this time!

So down the slippery slope I go, with one request then.

I currently have a stock 80mm 3-pin case fan, blazing away at about 2500RPM in my case

Any advice on a nice quiet 92mm? or do you think I could fit a 120mm in there?

Without cutting the metal, I mean no: but you're too close to the rear I/O panel, so I mean no anyway. Talking about 92mm fans, I think you might go for something like this Nexus (if you control it with a software or an external rheobus), or for a a Scythe like this other one (if you won't control it at all but use a std 4-pin molex to feed it). You might also use a dropping resistor (or an adapter cable) with the Nexus (I mean something which gives you around 8-9V).

Getting back to changing the cooler for a moment, I've used a Big Shuriken before and it performs wonderfully, and even better if you swap the fan for one 25mm thick. Scythe's Ratesu cooler will probably perform better if you have enough clearance. (At least an inch of space above the fan so it can breathe)

Also, you would do well to upgrade that exhaust fan to a 120mm if you haven't already. I suggest ditching the screws for Nexus' silicone fan mounts because they prevent the fan's vibrations from reaching the case. HUGE improvement. They also make a 120mm vibration dampener that will work on a cooler, cured my Shuriken's annoying rattlle.

Fireflare, I'm stuck with the Alpine for the time being. Budgetary concerns.

Luca, I'll look into the recommendations. I think my MB may be just wonky enough so that fan control can't work at all (rather not have to send it back, hassle) so I'm stuck with picking a case fan that has low RPM unmanaged. I don't produce enough heat using this box to warrant any serious power management schemes anyway, although the MB temp readings I can access via xsensors says 36to 40C (upper limit) all the time.

Didn't look at the packaging so carefully as yet, the MB does have some control scheme, smartfan I believe it's called. Just couldn't see that there's any way of getting the three-pin fan to the four-pin header. Adapters included maybe?

My budget improved a little, and already having a noctua really sold me on this one. I do think I'll have to take the MB out, a little apprehensive about that, Murphy's law and all. Now to just very carefully measure inside the case before payday and ordering.

Didn't look at the packaging so carefully as yet, the MB does have some control scheme, smartfan I believe it's called. Just couldn't see that there's any way of getting the three-pin fan to the four-pin header. Adapters included maybe?

Those fans aren't going to be driven by the 4 pin PWM fan header... though Nanoxia makes an adapter that can permit you to control a non-pwm fan as if it were a pwm fan.

Also I believe some motherboards have 3 pin fan headers that you can use to control non-pwm fans.

Now to just very carefully measure inside the case before payday and ordering.

It should fit without any issue, but maybe you have to dismantle the possible TAC duct on the side panel (pointless, however).

Better, as it won't be cheap at all, give also a look to the bigger brother NH-C14 because, if you can afford it (here it costs 50% more than the U9), it would fit as well, and it's far more future proof and effective.

you can plug 3pin fans directly into 4pin fan headers. they're keyed, so you can only plug them in one way, no mistakes will be made.

What happens when you plug a 3 pin non-PWM fan into a 4 pin header intended for a PWM fan?

Generally speaking, it depends of the board firmware: most MSI and ASUS may drive either with their BIOS.

pretty much this. either the boards firmware is smart enough to realize its not pwm, and give it voltage control; or it will be run at 12v, since the fan isnt wired to react to a pwm signal(a signal it wont get either, since the fourth pin isnt there).

Now to just very carefully measure inside the case before payday and ordering.

It should fit without any issue, but maybe you have to dismantle the possible TAC duct on the side panel (pointless, however).

Better, as it won't be cheap at all, give also a look to the bigger brother NH-C14 because, if you can afford it (here it costs 50% more than the U9), it would fit as well, and it's far more future proof and effective.

Quest: TAC duct referring to the case I assume? That's been removed since day one. Doesn't line up w/ my AMD stuff, assume it's meant to duct Intel setups properly.

Budgetwise, I'm probably unable to account for future-proofing, esp considering my board only takes DDR2 RAM anyway. Just want to quiet it down this little bit.

I have both included fans mounted on the U9B in a push/pull config connected via ULNA adapters in a Y to the HSF fan header. Lowered HSF RPM by ~300-400, so I guess that's about as quiet as I can get without switching out the case for a better design airflow-wise.

Is there anything I might have missed, and does anyone think I could get away with running the U9B on my Athlon II 245 without fans?

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